Angel of Death by John Askill

Author:John Askill
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781782432456
Publisher: Michael O'Mara Books
Published: 2013-12-13T22:00:00+00:00

11. ‘Help Me!’

David Thorpe and Ruth Lindsey run a private investigation agency called City Life, based in Grantham. They were friends of Peter and Sue Phillips. David, a big man who wore his hair in a pony-tail, was nicknamed ‘Columbo’ by Peter after the scruffy TV detective; his partner, a short attractive girl in her twenties, with long, dark hair and a round face, is diabetic and takes insulin every day. This fact was to prove important when they began to question Nurse Beverley Allitt.

They were usually employed checking on wayward partners in divorce cases and working undercover for local solicitors. Suddenly they found themselves thrust into the middle of a major police investigation into attempted murder on a children’s ward. Peter and Sue were convinced that they could help and that, given time, the private-eyes would be able to prove that Beverley had been wrongly accused. If it cost money to find the evidence, then they were quite prepared to pick up the bill. After all, Allitt was a firm friend and they were in no doubt that she had saved Katie’s life.

The nurse seemed delighted that someone wanted to help her and returned to the Phillips’s house for a first meeting with David and Ruth in the evening of 13 June.

The investigators had known Peter and Sue for about a year and had been visiting one night when Becky had fallen ill. They had shared the despair over her death and, knowing what the family had been through, they were only too willing to lend a hand.

Peter explained that he wanted them to investigate the allegations because he felt not enough was being done to defend Beverley. David, clutching a black notebook in which he had recorded the conversation, recalled: ‘When we met Beverley, it was awkward at times. We started by putting together background information and then we did a character analysis of her. We were testing out what was going on. We talked for about an hour. She was totally lost. She might as well have been in a different country, speaking a different language. Peter and Sue were trying to comfort her.’

Ruth and David were well aware that the Phillips were convinced that their friend had been falsely accused.

Ruth said: ‘She had been questioned by the police under arrest and given police bail. When we saw her, she was like a frightened rabbit. But she was trusted as a friend by Peter and Sue and was going to be godmother to Katie.’

David tried to spell out to Allitt just how serious the situation could be for her. He knew that there had been talk of Allitt being charged by the police.

‘But we ran into problems with Bev straightaway. Sometimes she would talk to you and then would forget what she had said. She said she had got a poor memory. She couldn’t remember basic hospital routines. Vital things like where the fridge was in the ward, where the controlled drugs cabinet was and who had the keys.

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